my food coop

I walked off in the rain and cold (winter DID come after all, and we even got a little bit of snow, although it melted immediately) to the food coop to meet up with F, who vouches for me so I can be taken up in the coop. F reminds me v. much of K's old flatmate D, our favourite gay choirmaster. He has the same straightforward, honest and direct yet respectuous way of speaking, moderating and taking responsibility for all sorts of things - linked with the particular type of scatterbrain that D is also well known for having. (it was never a surprise to find an unpaid phone bill and a reminder or two for that same bill - plus threats to cut the phone line - under a pile of paper on his desk. As for F, he told me and another person that the plenum would take place in Körtestr, when in face it was in a parallel street. Which didn't matter for me, as I met up with him earlier, but was rather inconvenient for the other person.)

F and I are both in the group of coop people trying to set up alternative structures for direct cooperation with farmers, but F is going away to India for two months and coming back right when I'll be going away. It's a shame, because I instinctively like F and would have liked to work with him and the rest of the group. That will wait for autumn.

In any case, we eventually went to the plenum. At first not quite ten people were there, and gradually more arrived, some a half hour later, others an hour and a half. On my right, people in their forties and fifties. On my left, people in their twenties and thirties. The right side kept making side comments, talking while somebody else was explaining something, having conversations with their neighbours and generally being undisciplined and unruly. The left side was peaceful and bathed in a different plenum culture - the plenum culture I instinctively apply in such a context (or try to), implicitely demanding that each wait for their turn to speak, wait for the other person to finish talking before jumping in the conversation, try to include everyone in the debate, and listen respectfully. F did his best to disciplin the older fraction. There are a few difficult cases, but one gets used to every personality, I suppose.
What's more important for me is the gradual discovery of the number of details and organisational difficulties that exist. I still imagined that the whole business of organising one's food supplies would be pretty straight forward. Miss A wants to order her vegetables from farmer family W and does so. But in reality, Farmer family W only delivers the food on saturdays, and the rest of the food coop wants the delivery during the week. Farmer family delivers the produce if the order is for 50 euros at least - but the food coop people don't know the produce that W can deliver and wouldn't buy them. etc etc.
We'll see how it goes. All is possible, but it's a long educational process... In any case, in the mean time, I have my food coop. Hurray.

the devil is round the corner

On Tuesday I had a lovely afternoon with my friend M. whom I hadn't seen in a few weeks as we had both been busy with other things. We talked a lot, had an early afternoon brunch, went for a walk in the sun, sat along the canal talking some more, and started trying to make our card for the Ulenkrug people much too late, so that we didn't finish it.
Talking with M. is always so comfortable - she is a very good listener as well as talker, she encourages people to talk, and we share a lot of common conceptions. I can imagine us two part of a life-project, an intentional community, one day. In the mean time however, one thing she said got me thinking on a track I don't like at all. She said she'd started calculating how much life cost once you're not a student anymore, and whether she would manage with a part-time job. The part-time job is where everything goes click. I decided for myself that I would not seek wage labour after my studies, nor freelance for that matter. And the solution for that is to move into an political intentional community.
M. on the other hand hasn't completely abandonned the idea of a Normal Job, although obviously she would prefer not being forced into these structures. The difference there is that she wants to stay in Berlin, and the structures for emancipating one's self from the wage system are not in place in the city. Not yet. And I started to realise that there are several projects I would like to contribute to organising, among others the ever attempted and for now abandonned "City-countryside-river project" (Stadt-Land-Fluss) - an intentional community with the river Spree linking a part in Berlin and a part in the countryside, the countryside community being in charge of producing food.

The group that was originally trying to implement the Stadt Land Fluss project eventually split up shortly after a suitable piece of land had been found and acquired north of Berlin. This piece of land is now used for another similar project producing non-commercial agricultural products (for now only potatoes and seed-oil, the project is still very new), i.e. agricultural goods that are not sold but shared and given in exchange of e.g. work on the farm or donations.

With our present Food Coop project to try and strengthen rural life in the region, I came to several ideas, including that of founding a non-commercial food-coop next year. And I just started appreciating the political energy and activity there is in Berlin, and how good it would be to contribute to the setting up of structures allowing people to live without having to separate their political principles from their private (i.e. non political) life.

And so it was that the devil promptly jumped on my right shoulder. What if I decided to stay in the city and set up such structures with M and other people? I would need a part-time job too. Part time, because full-time only robs one of precious time in exchange of unnecessary money. I don't like this idea.

regional economy

Last night I went to a meeting of people who are organised in Food-Coops and want to strengthen ties to regional agricultural producers. The regionality aspect being my main motivation for being interested in a food-coop in the first place, I was eager to go. I'd met the people at a Food-Coop information evening they'd organised in January.
The meeting was smaller than I expected - three people from three different FCs, another guy who had come to the information evening in January, and me. We met at one of the FC people's place, a large, comfortable family flat 20 minutes away from my place on foot. (I still managed to be late. But, and unlike common misconceptions about the Germans, being late is expected, at least in academic circles. Any time for a meeting is instinctively understood as meaning "c.t.", i.e "with time", so fifteen minutes later than indicated - the "academic quarter". Seminars for instance don't ever start at 10 but at 10.15. )
I was a bit nervous to go, as I didn't really have any clear conception of how the regional agricultural economy worked in the first place, and thus how it could be strengthened. It's always a difficult position to have - the interested but ignorant person. Surprisingly and fortunately, everything went a lot smoother than expected.
First off, it became very clear that my expectations and conceptions were very similar to those of the FC people. The other non-FC man however, and although he monopolised the discussion way too much at the beginning, quickly realised that his vision didn't fit in - much too commercial and "consumer" oriented, rather than interested in the human, solidary and direct ties linking us - and not any old anonymous consumer - with the producers.
It became so comfortable and natural for me to be there, that eventually one of the FC guys invited me to join his FC located near my place. Of course I originally didn't want to join a Food Coop but rather found a new one, but seeing as I'll be away for four months, I came to the conclusion that I should wait until I'm back to start with this project. So I was pleased to get the invitation, especially as one can only become a member of this particular FC via an existing member.
As soon as I start working in the coop, I will have a much better understanding of the potential logistical problems that have to be considered when trying to organise more direct relations with farmers. I'm looking forward to it all.